What risks do children of problem drinking parents face?
Children of problem drinking parents are at risk for a wide variety of problems. These include mental health problems such as greater depression, anxiety and acting out or aggression that are evident as early as 2-3 years of age and remain elevated compared to their peers into adulthood. Moreover, children of problem drinking parents show higher rates of school-related problems, problems with social skills and interpersonal relationship and, most notably, substantially greater risk for alcohol and drug disorders in young adulthood. Children of problem drinking parents initiate substance use earlier than their peers, increase their use more quickly over time, and show a faster escalation from initiation to alcohol disorder relative to other children. Indeed, by young adulthood, 53% of children of problem drinking parents evidence an alcohol-disorder as compared to only 25% of other children. Importantly, although these numbers show that children of problem drinking parents are more like
